The Problem of Drug Abuse and Addiction
Who can doubt that the world faces a major problem with the drug abuse and addiction? Since the 1960s all countries have experienced a marked increase in the use and supply of illegal narcotic and pharmaceutical drugs.1 Drug uses raises serious concerns among local and international communities and causes enormous costs to individuals, families and their communities. Narcotic drugs2 refer to any chemical substance that alters the brain chemistry, affects feelings and perceptions, or changes the way the body functions. Some users seek out drugs in order to relax and unwind, while others turn to chemicals to expand their perceptions or give them energy. For many addicts, drugs are a way to relieve physical or emotional pain.3 Addiction itself is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. It is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain, they change its structure and how it works. These brain changes can be lost-lasting, and can lead to the harmful behaviors seen in people who abuse drugs.4 Thus, A drug addict is as a person who, for no compelling medical reason, habitually uses medicinal substances that are considered harmful, socially undesirable, or both. Someone who get reach the addiction stage of drugs, may have stopped caring about how drugs are affecting their health. Addiction also puts someone at risk of violence, accidental or self-inflicted injuries, motor vehicle accidents and sexually transmitted diseases. When someone is addicted, it can be hard to make wise decisions
1
Syamal Kumar Chatterjee, Legal Aspects of International Drug Control, The Hague: Nijhoff Press, 1981, page. 343. 2 Vanuatu Law Commission, Review of The Dangerous Drugs Act [Cap 12] and The Penal Code [cap 135], Issues Paper no.01, 2013, Page. 4. 3 Natasha Tracy, Effects of Drug Addiction (Physical and Psychological), 20 June 2016, Healthy Place For Your Mental Health Wesbite, accessed 4 Dec 2017 20.52pm on https://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/drug-addiction/effects-of-drug-addictionphysical-and-psychological/, para. 5. 4 Nora D. Volkow, Drugs, Brains, and Behaviour: The Science of Addiction, National Institute on Drug Abuse Website, 1 July 2014, Accessed 4 December 2017 21.28pm on https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction, page 3.
about their body. Addicts often neglect their health and may be unaware of their declining mental and physical condition.5 While many drugs improve or even save lives, some drugs do more harm than good. Side effects, which a patient may not be aware of prior to taking the medication, may be debilitating or even lead to further medical problems. 6 Moreover, the ever constant problem is raising the money to buy drugs. It costs much per day to support a habit. As a consequence, they must resort to begging, borrowing, or stealing to make up the difference. A common practice is the selling of narcotic drugs to other addicts in a series of transactions.7 Taking a dangerous drug could lead to a lifetime of expensive medical issues, pain and suffering, and affect the ability to earn a living. Some victims die of complications related to the medication. By far the largest group, take to the use of drugs simply through curiosity and association with addicts. They are recruited from the younger elements of the population. Periodically the public becomes aware of this and becomes greatly alarmed about the corruption of our youth. We are passing through such a phase now. A high percentage come from broken homes or homes where there is little love or affection. Frequently there is a history of a tyrannical father and an overindulgent mother. Many belong to minority groups living in deteriorated metropolitan areas.8 As a result of scientific research, addiction to drug is a disease that affects both the brain and behavior.9 Abuse of and addiction to alcohol, nicotine, and illicit and prescription drugs cost some countries in increased health care costs, crime, and lost productivity. People of all ages suffer the harmful consequences of drug abuse and addiction. Strictly speaking, the production, trafficking, and consumption of illicit drugs has been a grave threat to the safety and well-being of individuals. Drug abuse and
5
M.J. Pescor, The Problem of Narcotic Drug Addiction, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Volume 43 Issue 4, 1953, page 471 6 Powers & Santola, Dangerous Drug Injury Lawyers in New York, New York, 2016, New York Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorneys website, accessed 4 Dec 2017 21.55pm on http://www.powers-santola.com/legal-services/products-liabilitylawyer/dangerous-drugs/, para. 3. 7 M.J. Pescor, Op.cit, page. 476. 8 Ibid, page 479. 9 Nora D. Volkow, op.cit, page 1.
addiction also brings significant impact on individual human being and especially to the marginalized group. The issue in some countries especially Indonesia is the inadequacy of Indonesia’s prisons to host the total of 197,158 detainees and prisoners, in which 47% of them are related with drugs offenses. Apparently, similar trend also applies in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines. This is a very problematic approach. The trade in narcotic drugs, however, cannot be abolished entirely because they are important for medical and scientific purposes. Therefore, there are a comprehensive international control regime to prevent drugs being sold and distributed illegally. The 1961 Single convention on narcotic Drugs (Single Convention) article 30 stating that ‘parties shall require that the trade in and distribution of drugs be under license except where such trade or distribution is carried out by a State enterprise.�10 The Convention also imposes specific rules to control the importation and exportation of controlled drugs. More particularly, it provides that contracting parties conducting export with other countries must have knowledge of the laws and regulations of those countries and, in particular, about the number of drugs that may be imported into them.11 International trade under the Single Convention is regulated by license, which limits the number of importers and exporters and enables governments to monitor the flow of drugs across their borders.12 Drug regulation is almost universal in the industrialized nations of the world and is becoming increasingly common in third world countries. It is increasingly based on the premise that regulation is needed to ensure that new drugs will be safe and effective, labeled accurately, and marketed responsibly.13 International co-operation on the regulation and control of narcotic drugs began in the early twentieth century with the
10
The Single Convention on narcotic Drugs, article. 30. Ibid, article. 30(1)(b). 12 Ibid, article. 31. 13 Philip R. Lee and Jessica Herzstein, International Drug Regulation, Institute for Health Policy Studies, Annual Review Public Health 7:217-35, San Francisco California, 1986, page 217. 11
establishment of the International Opium Commission in Shanghai in 1909.14 The resulting international regime for the control of narcotics gradually regulated an increasingly wide range of drugs in an increasingly restrictive fashion, although this took some decades to achieve.15 Moreover, under the current international system, the international agencies have been established to control drugs. They are designed only as administrative support, funding or monitoring agencies, and lack effective enforcement powers, which are The United nations Commissions on Narcotic Drugs (UNCND), The United Nations Division of Narcotic Drugs (UNDND), The International narcotics Control Board (INCB), The United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control (UNFDAC), The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNIDC), and The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).16 Indonesia’s legal system of drugs has a plural civil law system that combined limited elements of Islamic legal tradition and adat (traditional customary law) within an overarching European civil law structure inherited from Dutch colonialism. Drugs are regulated within the civil law system, which is strongly influenced by colonial legal culture but has followed its own trajectory since independence. Indonesia share a commitment to the current international drugs law regime. This is based on three major United Nation (UN) Conventions to which each is a signatory: The UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 (as amended by the protocol of 1972); the UN
14
Hamid Ghodse, International Drug Control into the 21st Century, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2009, page 19; see also: David F Musto, The American Disease: Origins of narcotic Control, 3rd edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999, page 30. 15 M cherif Bassiouni, Critical Reflections on international and national Control of Drugs, 18 Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 311, 1990, page 313. 16 Martin Jelsma, The Development of International Drug Control: Lessons Learned and Strategic Challenges for the Future, Global Commission on Drug Policies Working Paper Prepared for the first meeting of the commission, Geneva 24 January 2011, Accessed Dec 5th 2017 23.18pm on www.globalcommissiondrugs.org/wpcontent/themes/gcdp_v1/pdf/global_com_martin_j elsma.pdf, para 8.
Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971; and the UN Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, 1988.17 Indonesia has several laws addressing drug abuse. Indonesia also retain the ‘death penalty’ for drug trafficking and the courts in country sentence certain traffickers to death, some of whom are eventually executed. During the Constitutional Court’s judicial review in 2007, the death penalty was maintained based on the Court’s view that drug abuse and related crimes was a most serious offense against humanity in the Republic of Indonesia. As such, it called for special treatment and the imposition of the maximum punishment.18 The government also share a ‘tough on drugs’ rhetoric, with drugs cast as a serious social evil.19 The illicit production, demand, and trafficking of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances is a serious threat to the health and welfare of population. There is an urgent need to combine legal sanctions with positive incentives in order to create a climate where non- users are reluctant to start consuming illicit drugs, including treatment programs, education, civic action, and developing anti-drug ethos, as well as to treat current users. one avenue of prevention is an educational program for the medical profession emphasizing the precautions to be taken in administering narcotic drugs, particularly to neurotic and alcoholic patients.20 There is need for a comprehensive study of the drug, its effects, and existing legislation regulating its use. The big problem is to reach the minority group of young hedonists who make up the bulk of initiates to drug addiction. Any educational program directed at them must also be directed at their more law- abiding contemporaries. Since most addicts have some sort of personality disorder, it follows that the basic attack on the problem of addiction is to prevent the development of such disorders. It is the current belief that most of these result from frustrated drives for security, recognition, and affection, particularly during
17
Tim Lindsey and Pip Nicholson, Drugs Law and Legal Practice in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016, page 203. 18 Asean Study Program, Drug Policies in Southeast Asia: Towards a More Humane Approach?, Discussion Report Talking ASEAN, no.27, October 2016, page 7. 19 Ibid, page. 9. 20 Ibid.
childhood.
21
Granting this, attention must be focused on preparing parents and
prospective parents for their roles in shaping the personalities of their children. We cannot expect to solve the entire drug problem with a complete solution to be put into operation immediately. However, there are improvements that can reasonably implemented. For instance, ‘zero-tolerance’, this approach to policing the drug problem which penalties for drug offences and a policy that all offences shall be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. In conclusion, close cooperation is needed among ASEAN member states to monitor the drug trade within the ASEAN member states as neighborhood. This is considered important because 80% of drug smuggling come from the sea and enters through seaports. The other solution that can be taken to resolve the problem to individual’s drug addiction, is by launching rehabilitation centers across Indonesia in collaboration with hospitals or local community health centers, to better assist drug users and address their problems in an integrated assessment facility. While the death penalty policy has evoked different responses and opinions from society, despite all of these controversies, law enforcement is still responsible to make sure that law enforcers apply the law without exception.
21
M.J. Pescor, op.cit, page 480.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Asean Study Program. Drug Policies in Southeast Asia: Towards a More Humane Approach?. Discussion Report Talking ASEAN. no.27. October 2016. David F Musto. The American Disease: Origins of narcotic Control. 3rd edition. New York: Oxford University Press. 1999. Hamid Ghodse. International Drug Control into the 21st Century. Hampshire: Ashgate. 2009.
M cherif Bassiouni. Critical Reflections on international and national Control of Drugs. 18 Denver Journal of International Law and Policy 311. 1990.
M.J. Pescor. The Problem of Narcotic Drug Addiction. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Volume 43 Issue 4. 1953.
Martin Jelsma. The Development of International Drug Control: Lessons Learned and Strategic Challenges for the Future. Global Commission on Drug Policies Working Paper Prepared for the first meeting of the commission. Geneva 24 January 2011. (www.globalcommissiondrugs.org/wpcontent/themes/gcdp_v1/pdf/global_com_mart in_jelsma.pdf)
Natasha Tracy. Effects of Drug Addiction (Physical and Psychological). 20 June 2016. Healthy
Place
For
Your
Mental
Health
Wesbite
(https://www.healthyplace.com/addictions/drug-addiction/effects-of-drug-addictionphysical-and-psychological/.)
Nora D. Volkow. Drugs. Brains. and Behaviour: The Science of Addiction. National Institute
on
Drug
Abuse
Website.
1
July
2014.
(https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction)
Philip R. Lee and Jessica Herzstein. International Drug Regulation. Institute for Health Policy Studies. Annual Review Public Health 7:217-35. San Francisco California. 1986.
Powers & Santola. Dangerous Drug Injury Lawyers in New York. New York. 2016. New York Medical Malpractice & Personal Injury Attorneys website. (http://www.powerssantola.com/legal-services/products-liability-lawyer/dangerous-drugs/) Syamal Kumar Chatterjee. Legal Aspects of International Drug Control. The Hague: Nijhoff Press. 1981.
The Single Convention on narcotic Drugs.
Tim Lindsey and Pip Nicholson. Drugs Law and Legal Practice in Southeast Asia: Indonesia. Singapore. and Vietnam. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. 2016.
Vanuatu Law Commission. Review of The Dangerous Drugs Act [Cap 12] and The Penal Code [cap 135]. Issues Paper no.01. 2013.